The present invention relates to computer-based educational technology and, in particular to a method and apparatus for the production and integrated delivery of educational content in digital form.
It has long been the objective of educators and educational technologists to incorporate information processing and communication technologies into the teaching process with a view toward enhancing the transfer of knowledge in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency. Within the classroom, prior teaching technology has ranged: (a) from the use of chalk boards to optical and digital display and projection devices; (b) from the presentation of live lectures to the supplemental use of televised and prerecorded video productions; and, (c) from the use of traditional paper-based texts, treatises, workbooks and tests to computer-based reading, research, exercises and testing.
Particularly in the areas of higher education and specialized training, significant efforts have been directed toward the use of technology in the presentation of courses: (a) that are attended by large numbers of students; (b) that are inherently complex or otherwise benefit from extensive supplementation; or (c) that are presented repeatedly to different individuals or small groups of learners at different times. Also, in the areas of higher and continuing education and in corporate training, substantial efforts have been made toward the decentralization of the teaching process with the objective of making quality education available to more students, at more convenient locations and times, and at a lower incremental cost to the sponsoring organization.
A small minority of academically accredited courses have been offered by means of a videotaped lecture coupled with traditional reading assignments. These courses have had the advantage of allowing students to learn at a time and pace most appropriate to their individual styles and schedules. Videotape has also been used to back up and preserve live educational simulcasts to students enrolled in television-based courses offered on a synchronous or real-time basis. Videotaped lectures make the content available to students unable to attend at specifically scheduled times, and to students unable to learn at the pace adopted by the lecturer. Various combinations of televised simulcasts and videotaped presentations have represented the dominant use of technology in the delivery of traditional higher educational content.
There have been numerous attempts to move toward the asynchronous or time-shifted delivery of educational content in ways that would allow multiple learners to receive the content at virtually any time. Multiple videotape copies of lectures have been made available for viewing by students at any time and this simple methodology has proven to be among the most effective and least expensive. Unfortunately, this requires the production of large numbers of videotape copies for shared use by students and even more if every enrolled student is to receive a copy. Videotape copies degrade with repeated use and serial reproduction. In addition, the shared use of videotape copies requires the availability of multiple televisions and videotape players that require ongoing maintenance and are relatively expensive considering that they are used in educational institutions as single-function devices. Further, it is practically impossible to change, edit, supplement or update the educational content stored on multiple videotape copies without re-recording the lecture on each tape copy. Televised lectures are the content and presentation equivalent of videotaped lectures, except they must be offered to students on a synchronous basis. Unless a student makes a video recording of the transmitted lecture (further degrading the quality of any incorporated text or images), it is impossible to start, stop or otherwise control the rate at which the educational content is delivered and the student must xe2x80x9cattendxe2x80x9d the televised presentation on the precise schedule set by the lecturer or sponsoring institution.
Videotape and television media are acceptable for the delivery of the audio and video components of an educational or training presentation; however, they are generally inadequate for use in conveying related content in the form of textual, graphic, written, interactive or similar materials. For example, when a lecturer provides supplemental content by writing or drawing on a black (or white) board, this content, if it is to be recorded or transmitted at all, must be captured on videotape along with the lecture itself. At best this requires means for zooming in on the lecturer""s writing and produces an image that is low in quality and often hidden from immediate view by the lecturer""s hand. In any case, the resulting image produced through non-digital video recordation or television transmission is significantly degraded because of the inherently low-density visual character of these media.
Currently available methods for dealing with the foregoing problem have included the use of two video cameras. In one case a first camera is dedicated to capturing the actions, words and expressions of the lecturer while a second camera is focused close-in on the lecturer""s writings and serves to separately record these exemplifications of the lecture content. This methodology has a number of disadvantages. One involves problems in providing reliable synchronization of the two video cameras during play-back and another involves the allocation of screen resources between the lecturexe2x80x94which is continuousxe2x80x94and the lecturer""s written notations that are entered on a sporadic basis. These problems have been addressed through the post-production processing of the two videotapes to create a single continuous tape into which relevant segments from the second camera (focused on written entries) are incorporated at appropriate times as inserts into the lecture tape. In some cases, the lecture video is run on a split screen or the written entries are shown full screen while the lecture proceeds on an audio only (or voice-over) basis. While these post-production effort results in an improved simulation of an actual in-class experience, the recorded or televised quality of the written entries is often so low as to accommodate only relatively large format (low-content) entries and images without significant visual or textual detail.
Sophisticated systems (e.g., Media100) are available for use in producing and editing video lectures but their cost, limited availability and complexity of use have placed them beyond the realm of practical adoption by most teachers, professors and trainers. In addition, the inherent low-density character of analogue video recording and playback systems has limited the ability to incorporate educationally meaningful text and graphic materials into lectures presented on videotape.
The visualization problem caused by a lecturer""s hand being disposed between a second video camera and the board on which written entries are being made has been addressed by a number of products. One hardware/software package known as the xe2x80x9cEducartxe2x80x9d (by Tegrity, Inc of San Jose, Calif.) involves a relatively complex, two-camera optical system described in part in U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,263. This and similar products recently on the market are typically used to record short training segments which are augmented by standard Power Point (by Microsoft, Inc.) or similar slide presentations that are prepared prior to the actual lecture. These presentation slides are often used by the lecturer as a prompt (or outline) of the content to be presented. While these slides also provide the audience with an outline of the presentation content, they typically do not educationally supplement the content except by illustrating it""s structure and order. Other currently available products for combining videos with Power Point or similar slide presentations are marketed under the names xe2x80x9cReal Slide Showxe2x80x9d, Real Presenterxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cReal Producerxe2x80x9d offered by RealNetworks, Inc. These products include an audio and video compression system that allows for replay over intermediate speed network connections.
Another method currently in use combines the video taped image of a lecturer making an informational presentation with an inserted transcription of the lecturer""s spoken words displayed to the viewer on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis during play back, rather than in in short, segmented versions as seen in the case of close captioned broadcasts and translated video presentations. This form of verbatim textual supplementation provides no educational or content enhancement beyond what is offered in the lecture itself. Another method, which actually constitutes prior art, incorporates a still image of a lecturer together with a voice-over commentary relating to the educational content presented on the screen observed by the learner. One version of this method is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,614.
While the current efforts to develop and deliver xe2x80x9cdistance educationxe2x80x9d on an asynchronous basis do provide some approximation of a face-to-face teaching experience, they do virtually nothing to enable the enhancement of that experience from an educational perspective; nor do they meaningfully enable the efficient integration of illustrative, explanatory, analytical, experimental, testing or other supplemental content which substantively expands and enriches the learning experience.
Major efforts are currently underway to further develop and expand broadband systems for the delivery of digitized video on a xe2x80x9cstreamingxe2x80x9d basis to multiple students with access to high speed Internet or Intranet connections. While these efforts have resulted in a highly developed infrastructure for the asynchronous and on-demand delivery of audio/visual works (primarily entertainment), this delivery infrastructure itself can do nothing to develop or enhance the transmitted content.
Current and planned uses of streaming video in higher education and specialized training involve little more than the digitization of video lectures for later viewing. This has been done on the same basis previously described. One sophisticated research institution is in the process of spending tens of millions of dollars to implement this model by constructing specialty lecture halls and related student viewing facilities to annually present, record and re-record lectures for real time or delayed viewing by enrolled students. Such enhanced delivery systems do (at a very substantial cost) eliminate the need for the distribution of videotape copies or the use of television transmission facilities. This improved mode of delivery also enables reception of educational content (by streaming video) on personal computers, rather than televisions or video cassette players. Unfortunately, it does nothing to enable the enhancement of the educational program content beyond the classroom lecture itself.
The principal objective of the present invention is to enable the efficient and inexpensive production and delivery of substantively enhanced educational programs, which incorporate and are built upon traditional high-content lecture presentations or training demonstrations. It is also an objective to provide a simple, technology-implemented system that can be easily used by lecturers, teachers and trainers without on-going aid from a computer or software specialist. Further objectives include the provision of a method and apparatus that will enable: (a) the simple incorporation of a wide range of audio, video, textual, graphic, written, testing, experimental and automated content (all in digital form) into the program to meaningfully illustrate, exemplify, supplement, demonstrate or test understanding of the educational content; (b) the ability to deliver the educational program asynchronously to large numbers of enrolled students by means of network connections or encrypted/activated CDs or DVDs; (c) the convenient updating and revision of the lecture and supplemental content incorporated into the educational presentation for immediate release to students; (d) the on-screen display of individual student notes which can be stored or transmitted at the end of each program session; (e) the incorporation of testing, evaluation, demonstrative and interactive components at predetermined points during the educational program; and, (f) the utilization of proven educational materials and techniques which cannot conveniently or efficiency be incorporated into a traditional live or video-recorded lecture presentation.
The present invention is the culmination of over twelve years of research, testing and statistical analysis of educational materials technology-enhanced teaching methodologies. The embodiment of the invention as described herein was and tested through the development and delivery of a fully accredited four-unit course entitled xe2x80x9cCommercial Torts.xe2x80x9d This course had an enrollment of fifty-seven law students and was presented at the Arizona State University College of Law during the Fall Term (August-December) of the year 2000. The presentation of this prototype course served to demonstrate the invention""s functionality, ease of use, stability, adaptability and, most importantly, its effectiveness in achieving the improved and efficient transfer of complex functional knowledge to a group of critical and mature learners who expressed a significant level of satisfaction with the new learning process itself. Eighty-four percent of students who took the prototype on-line course expressed a preference for this method as compared to a traditional live lecture. This group of 57 students achieved an eight percent higher median level of academic performance as measured by a standardized (30 page, 625 point, 4 hour) examination when compared to an earlier group of 70 students who attended the identical lecture at the time it was delivered live.
The key aspects of the invention may be most effectively summarized in terms of the technical methodology by which the apparatus operates in the production, modification and delivery of an educational program in digital form. In this context, the following provides an overview and summary of the steps included in the improved method and its related features:
(a) Capture Educational Presentationxe2x80x94Capturing and storing as digital performance files the sounds, actions and events produced by at least one person involved in the rendition of an educational or training presentation over one or more periods of time;
(b) Compile Content Filesxe2x80x94Compiling and storing as digital content files a plurality of informational expressions related in subject matter to defined time segments of said educational presentation;
(c) Generate Multi-Frame Screenxe2x80x94Generating a screen having multiple predetermined and functionally independent frames including
(i) a first frame for receiving and displaying selected time-based performance files depicting the educational presentation and
(ii) supplemental frames for independently receiving and displaying selected content files in a defined order and in defined synchronization relative to the time-based display of said educational presentation in said first frame;
(d) Integrate Contentxe2x80x94Displaying at least one performance file within said first frame while entering selected content files (in the defined order and synchronization) for display within selected supplemental frames of the screen;
(e) Generate Scriptxe2x80x94Generating and storing as digitally readable script files, time-based records of when each content file is displayed in each supplemental frame in chronological relation to the time-based display of at least one performance file in said first frame;
(f) Preview Contentxe2x80x94Optionally repeating all or portions of step (d) in sequential response to the digitally readable script files to preview the educational program in the form produced for synchronized delivery to users;
(g) Deliver Contentxe2x80x94Repeating all or portions of step (d) in sequential response to the digitally readable script files and in controlled response to a set of predetermined commands from at least one independent user viewing said frames and their content within a separately generated screen;
(h) Display User Notesxe2x80x94Optionally displaying individual content in an additional frame within said screen as the content is generated by an independent user during a repetition of step (d);
(i) Modify Contentxe2x80x94Optionally repeating steps (d) and (e) while inserting, deleting or changing selected performance or content files and generating corresponding script files for use in incorporating such modifications into the educational program for subsequent delivery to users.